Queen :: Charts & Sales History

[EdWood]

Arab - I think its been going up the charts for the last few weeks. The week before it was at number 110 and the week before 156! I really hope it can climb next week - I think the Freddie documentary on BBC1 affected sales

Even now going unto Christmas album sales aren't that good and at number 77 it probably sold less then 2,000 copies (comparing the sales figures 2 weeks ago, the number 73 album sold 1,781 copies).

Still I'm glad Greatest Hits has re-charted back in the top 100 (again!) and its still clocking up sales, even though The Platinum Collection is also doing well for a catalogue album and has regularly been in the top 200 this year - its last 2 weeks chart positions were 166 and 131.

I don't think Greatest Hits will beat 2011 sales when it sold 76,200 according to OCC but we never know until we see an updated sales figure.

[brian05]

From OCC web site,

3 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY QUEEN 1975 2.36m

in UK best-selling singles.

It was at 2.13m in 2002, so 230,000 digital sales.

[loris39]

Hungarian Rhapsody on I-Tunes today:

#4 El Salvador
#4 Panama
#14 Peru
#16 Brazil
#16 Colombia
#17 Argentina
#23 Chile
#33 Spain
#43 Paraguay
#75 Dominican Republic
#86 Singapore
#113 Germany
#115 Portugal
#135 Mexico
#146 Belgium
#168 Austria
#215 Switzerland

[slightlymad]

Dutch Charts 10/11/2012

Album Chart
44 New Queen Hungarian Rhapsody

Music DVD Chart
10 Queen Hungarian Rhapsody
21 Freddie Mercury The Great Pretender
22 Queen Live At Wembley

[slightlymad]

UK Album Chart

62 (77) Queen Greatest Hits

Quite suprisingly Queen Hungarian Rhapsody DVD/Bluray fails to even chart in the UK Top40 Music Video Chart, can't remember that ever happening before with a Queen video release. Not sure if distribution was an issue as alot of Queen fans were struggling to find it in the shops!!

[EdWood]

UK Album Chart

62 (77) Queen Greatest Hits

Quite suprisingly Queen Hungarian Rhapsody DVD/Bluray fails to even chart in the UK Top40 Music Video Chart, can't remember that ever happening before with a Queen video release. Not sure if distribution was an issue as alot of Queen fans were struggling to find it in the shops!!

Yes Slightlymad I'm glad the album is back in the top 75 - its exactly at the same position it was a few weeks ago - 62

I have heard also that it is very hard to get this new Queen product - either not in stock in stores or having to wait weeks from release date if ordering from online stores. :-?

[brian05]

On page 68 of the OCC Million Sellers book it states,

Not only did the marathon single top the Official Singles Chart on two separate occasions (1975 and 1991), selling over one million copies each time, but it also features on their biggest-selling UK album ever (Queen's six million selling Greatest Hits.)

Has this album really sold 6m or did they just round up 5.86m to 6m?

[HUR]

Here is a video of the band getting a especial Gold award for their albums sales in Netherlands. It is from mid 1982, just after Hot Space had been released. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIBxjX2piqM.

They were acknowledged for selling 1,000,000 albums to that point. It can be heard how when they mentioned that "few international groups can achieve this". And in fact, I would say that only The Beatles and Abba had sold that many (or more) by 1982, with the latter being ahead of the former perhaps.

But I think things have changed since then and, I believe, Queen are now the best selling foreign group ever in Netherlands.

Here is a list compiled by MJDangerous in terms of albums sales:

Netherlands

Artist Total Album Sales
1 Queen 4,542,000
2 ABBA 3,695,000
3 U2 3,290,000
4 Dire Straits 3,205,000
5 The Rolling Stones 2,926,000

The Beatles are missing from this list, but I still think Queen have sold slightly more than them in the Dutch market.

Some further information:

Certifications

Sheer Heart Attack – 50,000
A Night At The Opera – 100,000
A Day At The Races – 100,000
News Of The World – 100,000
Jazz – 100,000
Live Killers – 50,000
The Game – 50,000
Greatest Hits – 100,000
The Works – 50,000
The Miracle – 100,000
Innuendo – 100,000
Greatesy Hits II – 500,000
Live At Wembley – 50,000
Five Live – 100,000
Greatest Hits I & II – 100,000
Made In Heaven – 200,000
Greatest Hits III – 80,000
Platinum Collection – 160,000

Total – 2,090,000

According to the NVPL database, Queen are the highest certified band in the Netherlands. This is despite the fact that multiple platinum albums only show up from 1996 onwards, but not before. It isn't clear whether these multiple platinum certifications existed before or not.

Greatest Hits was claimed to have gone five times platinum in early 1993, for sales of 500,000 and A Night At The Opera double platinum, for 200,000 in total.

If true, their certified awards would add up to 2,590,000 units overall.

Overall I do agree with Queen selling roughly 4,500,000 albums in Holland.

Plus, their music videos sales are enormous:

DVDs

Sales courtesy of EMI Marketing. By February 2004.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert – 22,089
Greatest Video Hits – 45,877
Live At Wembley – 115,518
Greatest Video Hits II – 20,836

Total – 204,320

Several things:

Live At Wembley had sold 115,518 by early 2004, but it was certified double platinum (160,000 copies) in April 2005 and by now probably about 200,000.

Greatest Video Hits II had just been released in November 2003.

Other videos were released after 2004, such Queen On Fire (which sold very well and ranked prominently in the annual charts of both 2004 and 2005); Return Of The Champions (number 2 in 2005 and Top 30 in year end ranking); and Queen Rock Montreal (number one in the local charts in 2007); and other videos.

Overall, Queen have sold nearly 500,000 DVDs since 2002 onwards.

With VHS, it should easily be 750,000 music videos altogether.

And therefore well past the 5,000,000 combining albums and music videos. Here it is safe to say that no group beats Queen.

Here is an interesting detail about Greatest Hits II:

Chat history (Top 30)

Greatest Hits II
09.11.1991: N 26.
16.11.1991: 8.
23.11.1991: 3.
30.11.1991: 2.
07.12.1991: 4.
14.12.1991: 3.
21.12.1991: 1.
28.12.1991: 1.
04.01.1992: 1.
11.01.1992: 1.
18.01.1992: 1.
25.01.1992: 1.
01.02.1992: 1.
08.02.1992: 1.
15.02.1992: 1.
22.02.1992: 2.
29.02.1992: 2.
07.03.1992: 4.
14.03.1992: 7.
21.03.1992: 7.
28.03.1992: 8.
04.04.1992: 14.
11.04.1992: 17.
18.04.1992: 24.
25.04.1992: 24.
02.05.1992: 20.
09.05.1992: 8.
16.05.1992: 3.
23.05.1992: 2.
30.05.1992: 2.
06.06.1992: 1.
13.06.1992: 1.
20.06.1992: 3.
27.06.1992: 3.
04.07.1992: 2.
11.07.1992: 3.
18.07.1992: 7.
25.07.1992: 10.
01.08.1992: 10.
08.08.1992: 13.
15.08.1992: 15.
22.08.1992: 15.
29.08.1992: 17.
05.09.1992: 17.
12.09.1992: 15.
19.09.1992: 11.
26.09.1992: 11.
03.10.1992: 12.

But Various Artists compilations were allowed then. A total of 11 weeks at the top and 34 Top 10.

But it would also have been number during a further 7 weeks if these multi artists albums had been excluded.

Some of these charts:

22.02.1992
1 Various Artists House Party II - The Ultimate Megamix
2 Queen Greatest Hits II
3 Nirvana Nevermind
4 Simply Red Stars
5 Queen Greatest Hits
6 Lisa Stansfield Real Love
7 Genesis We Can't Dance
8 Prince & The New Power Generation Diamonds And Pearls
9 Various Artists Het beste uit de Top 40 van '91
10 Tina Turner Simply The Best

29.02.1992
1 Various Artists House Party II - The Ultimate Megamix
2 Queen Greatest Hits II
3 Simply Red Stars
4 Genesis We Can't Dance
5 Lisa Stansfield Real Love
6 Nirvana Nevermind
7 Queen Greatest Hits
8 Tina Turner Simply The Best
9 Prince & The New Power Generation Diamonds And Pearls
10 Various Artists Het beste uit de Top 40 van '91

23.05.1992
1 Various Artists Het beste uit de Top 100 Allertijden Editie '92
2 Queen Greatest Hits II
3 Foreigner The Very Best Of Foreigner
4 Bruce Springsteen Human Touch
5 Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik
6 Annie Lennox Diva
7 Genesis We Can't Dance
8 Queen Greatest Hits
9 Various Artists The Greatest Hits '92 Vol. 1
10 Various Artists Tour Of Duty 4

30.05.1992
1Various Artists Het beste uit de Top 100 Allertijden Editie '92
2 Queen Greatest Hits II
3 Various Artists House Party III - The Ultimate Megamix
4 Foreigner The Very Best Of Foreigner
5 Annie Lennox Diva
6 Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik
7 Queen Greatest Hits
8 Genesis We Can't Dance
9 Lionel Richie Back To Front
10 Bruce Springsteen Human Touch

20.06.1992
1 Various Artists The Greatest Hits '92 Vol. 2
2 Various Artists Countdown Rock Ballads
3 Queen Greatest Hits II
4 Various Artists House Party III - The Ultimate Megamix
5 Cock Robin The Best Of Cock Robin
6 Lionel Richie Back To Front
7 Various Artists Het beste uit de Top 100 Allertijden Editie '92
8 ZZ Top Greatest Hits
9 Queen Greatest Hits
10 Various Artists Move The House 4

27.06.1992
1 Various Artists Countdown Rock Ballads
2 Various Artists The Greatest Hits '92 Vol. 2
3 Queen Greatest Hits II
4 Cock Robin The Best Of Cock Robin
5 Various Artists House Party III - The Ultimate Megamix
6 Lionel Richie Back To Front
7 ZZ Top Greatest Hits
8 Various Artists Liedjes voor Oranje
9 Various Artists Move The House 4
10 Right Said Fred Up
11 Various Artists Het beste uit de Top 100 Allertijden Editie '92
12 Queen Live At Wembley '86
13 Metallica Metallica
14 Queen Greatest Hits
15 Various Artists Top Hits '92 Part 1
16 Genesis We Can't Dance
17 Annie Lennox Diva
18 The Black Crowes The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion
19 Various Artists Amor de mis amores '92
20 Snap! The Madman's Return

04.07.1992
1 Various Artists Countdown Rock Ballads
2 Queen Greatest Hits II
3 Various Artists The Greatest Hits '92 Vol. 2
4 Lionel Richie Back To Front
5 Cock Robin The Best Of Cock Robin
6 Various Artists Liedjes voor Oranje
7 Various Artists House Party III - The Ultimate Megamix
8 Metallica Metallica
9 Right Said Fred Up
10 ZZ Top Greatest Hits

11.07.1992
1 Various Artists Countdown Rock Ballads
2 Lionel Richie Back To Front
3 Queen Greatest Hits II
4 Julio Iglesias Calor
5 Various Artists Turn Up The Bass 19
6 Various Artists The Greatest Hits '92 Vol. 2
7 Metallica Metallica
8 Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion I & II
9 Snap! The Madman's Return
10 Various Artists Amor de mis amores '92

With Various Artists compilations, Greatest Hits II would have stayed as many as 18 week at the summit and 44 in the Top 10. A bid difference. It is funny because these titles were taken off the charts in early 1993, just a few weeks after Greatest Hits II went out of the Top 10.

Under current rules, Innuendo would have reached number during 7 weeks instead of 4.

Innuendo

16.02.1991: N 12.
23.02.1991: 1.
02.03.1991: 1.
09.03.1991: 1.
16.03.1991: 1.
23.03.1991: 2.
30.03.1991: 3.
06.04.1991: 5.
13.04.1991: 7.
20.04.1991: 10.

The Miracle

17.06.1989: 3.
24.06.1989: 2.
01.07.1989: 1.
08.07.1989: 1.
15.07.1989: 4.
22.07.1989: 4.
29.07.1989: 10.
05.08.1989: 13.
12.08.1989: 13.
19.08.1989: 3.
26.08.1989: 3.
02.09.1989: 6.
09.09.1989: 6.
16.09.1989: 6.
23.09.1989: 6.
30.09.1989: 6.
07.10.1989: 5.
14.10.1989: 4.
21.10.1989: 8.
28.10.1989: 12.
04.11.1989: 15.
11.11.1989: 20.
18.11.1989: 25.
25.11.1989: 30.
02.12.1989: 36.
09.12.1989: 44.
16.12.1989: 40.
23.12.1989: 36.
30.12.1989: 36.
06.01.1990: 33.
13.01.1990: 30.
20.01.1990: 21.
27.01.1990: 18.
03.02.1990: 13.
10.02.1990: 11.
17.02.1990: 11.

But again, without Various Artists compilations The Miracle would have charted much better. As below:

17.06.1989: 2.
24.06.1989: 2.
01.07.1989: 1.
08.07.1989: 1.
15.07.1989: 3.
22.07.1989: 3.
29.07.1989: 8.
05.08.1989: 9.
12.08.1989: 8.
19.08.1989: 2.
26.08.1989: 2.
02.09.1989: 2.
09.09.1989: 2.
16.09.1989: 2.
23.09.1989: 2.
30.09.1989: 2.
07.10.1989: 2.
14.10.1989: 2.
21.10.1989: 4.
28.10.1989: 8.
04.11.1989: 10.
10.02.1990: 9.
17.02.1990: 9.

[arab]

The Miracle was huuge in NL Its chart-run was phenomenal

Poland
47(new) Hungarian Rhapsody

[loris39]

UK Albums Charts - Last week

#129 Barcelona
#137 Hungarian Rhapsody
#159 Greatest Hits II


Belgium (Wallonia) Albums Chart: #108 Platinum Collection

Belgium (Wallonia) DVD Chart: #1 Hungarian Rhapsody and #4 The Great Pretender


Belgium (Flanders) Album Chart: #72 Platinum Collection

Belgium (Flanders) DVD Chart: #1 Hungarian Rhapsody

Hungary Album Chart: #12 Hungarian Rhapsody

Czech Republic Top-50 Shipments: #43 Hungarian
Rhapsody

Poland Top-100 Monthly Chart: #6 Greatest Hits


France Album Chart: #134 Platinum Collection and #179 Greatest Hits

Italy Album Chart: #86 Platinum Collection

Italy DVD Chart: #6 The Great Pretender

Netherlands DVD Chart: #10 Hungarian
Rhapsody

Sweden DVD Chart: #8 Hungarian Rhapsody

Austrian DVD Chart: #8 Hungarian Rhapsody

Spain DVD Chart: #8 Hungarian Rhapsody

Denmark DVD Chart: #6 Hungarian Rhapsody

[EdWood]

Last week in the UK album charts, apart from Queen's Greatest Hits dropping from 62 to 72 (2398 Green Day at 73 sold 2,398 copies with [¡Uno!] so Queen should have sold 2,400 at least last week) we have


163. (129) BARCELONA [SPECIAL EDITION] (Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé)

141. (159) GREATEST HITS II [REMASTERED] (Queen)
OUT. (137) HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY - LIVE IN BUDAPEST (Queen)

So Hungarian Rhapsody was counted in the album charts not the music DVD charts - also its poor chart ranking is due to poor distribution, stock at most online and shop retailers and terrible promotion. Also if any fans bought only the DVD then the CD sales wouldn't occur!

Nice to see Greatest Hits 2 doing (reasonably) well.

It would be great to have some updated sales for these albums..

[Nackar]

HUR, thank you so much for that enlightening and o so interesting and detailed post on Queen's sales in The Netherlands! I rarely get to see such a long piece on Dutch sales, simply because it's not a favourite topic.

Selling about 4,5 million units is massive. Considering the US has 18 times the population of Holland, that would amount to 81 million units. I know it obviously doesn't work exactly like that, but it's still highly impressive.

[loris39]

Hungarian Rhapsody charts...

Germany (albums): #23
Germany (DVD): #1
Italy (albums): #29
Italy (DVD): #5
Czech Republic (albums): #32
South Korea (albums): #18
Hungary (albums): #10
France (DVD): #2
Austria (DVD): #1
Spain (DVD): #7
Switzerland (DVD): #10
Sweden (DVD): #16
Denmark (DVD): #8
Belgium (Wallonia) [DVD]: #3
Belgium (Flanders) [DVD]: #8
Netherlands (DVD): #12

[zeus555]

I think that Universal must be cutting back on
their promotions budget.

They released 'The Essential Collection', by ABBA,
in early September, & then never distributed it
very well. Nor was there any promotion. It failed
to reach the UK Top 200.

Now, they have done the same with 'Hungarian
Rhapsody'. It makes you wonder why they bothered
to release the Queen, & ABBA 'Sets', when they had
no intentions of advertising them.

Zeus555

[slightlymad]

I think that Universal must be cutting back on
their promotions budget.

They released 'The Essential Collection', by ABBA,
in early September, & then never distrubuted it
very well. Nor was there any promotion. It failed
to reach the UK Top 200.

Now, they have done the same with 'Hungarian
Rhapsody'. It makes you wonder why they bothered
to release the Queen, & ABBA 'Sets', when they had
no intentions of advertising them.

Zeus555

Totally agree Zeus,It's sad really especially when you see a full page advert in The Sun, Britains biggest selling paper announcing AC/DC are now on itunes, can't remember the last time I saw a Queen or Abba advert in a national newspaper!! I think Universal rely totally on both acts musicals to sell there back catalogue's.

[HUR]

HUR, thank you so much for that enlightening and o so interesting and detailed post on Queen's sales in The Netherlands! I rarely get to see such a long piece on Dutch sales, simply because it's not a favourite topic.

Selling about 4,5 million units is massive. Considering the US has 18 times the population of Holland, that would amount to 81 million units. I know it obviously doesn't work exactly like that, but it's still highly impressive.

Thank you, Nackar. And I was thinking about making my post longer and add some further details to the table, hehe.

By the way, here is the link I mentioned in that post. There are several others charts in that old google's page and, apart from the chart positions, some sales totals were often added there. This chart is from March 1993: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=es& ... KICulcHaiI.

75 81 GREATEST HITS 1 - queen +5

Here +5 means 500,000 copies.

So if we assume that Greatest Hits had indeed reached platinum five times over by then, that would mean the album has sold arguably 700,000 to this date.

EMI shared some sales numbers for the Parlophone edition released in 1994. These sales go up to February 2004, so about ten years covered:

Greatest Hits – 155,481

Which would have been enough to bring its tally to 655,000, with still most of 1993 (when Greatest Hits was still charting and selling in reasonable quantities) and then from March 2004 to 2012 missing, so almost ten years with no available information which, I reckon, would be more than enough to make it reach 700,000 sales.

But this is all assuming the initial information is right. MJDangerous didn't seem to believe as he estimated Greatest Hits on 500,000.

By the way, EMI revealed some sales numbers for other albums during the period between 1994 and February 2004:

Greatest Hits II – 174,580 (slightly more than Greatest Hits, surprising)

Greatest Hits I & II – 119,774

Greatest Hits III – 66,791

Made In Heaven – 243,033

A Night At The Opera – 27,458

Innuendo – 23,221

Live Magic – 19,445

Platinum Collection – 138,379

Of course, these sales come from the record company (always subject of dispute), but I take these are honest sales figures, net shipments. And accurate information.

For example, we see Greatest Hits I & II (double box set from 1994) on 119,774, while that album had been certified platinum in 1998 (100,000). So some 120,000 by 2004 would be right.

Same for Made In Heaven: sales of 243,033 by early 2004, after being certified double platinum (200,000) in 1996.

And Platinum Collection is also fine, with its 138,379 copies sold. As it had gone platinum in 2002 (80,000) and would make double platinum in January 2005 (160,000). Again, 138,379 by early 2004 would appear to be accurate, as it was some 22,000 copies short of the milestone 11 months before it finally achieved it and was officially certified (and in fact, Platinum Collection made it to the Top 10 in early 2005, reaching number 5).

But the biggest proof this is honest information is, in my opinion, on Greatest Hits III. While EMI gave sales of 66,791 copies, it is important to remember that album was actually platinum in 2000 (for 80,000 copies shipped). Four years later, the cumulative net total was 66,791. Meaning that some returns pushed it down in subsequent years and that its certification was too quick. This shows how careful we need to be when dealing with this.

All in all, Made In Heaven has sold at least 250,000 by now.

Platinum Collection should be on 200,000. Not only had it reached 160,000 in January 2005, but it actually finished that year amongst the 40 best selling albums and had nearly seven years of back catalogue afterwards.

Greatest Hits I & II is long deleted, so wouldn't have supassed 125,000 sales.

And I would say that after 8 years, Greates Hits III has probably regained its 80,000 sales status.

As for A Night At The Opera, while not as strong as their compilations, this just proves it is also a good catalogue seller (27,458 in ten years).

That album was released in 1975 and was massive. It spent nine weeks at the top spot and was claimed to reach 200,000 sales in total by 1979:

"DOUBLE PLATINUM FOR QUEEN
(word underneath the picture is Diamonds)
During a party, by record label EMI organised, informal party in a Mexican restaurant in Amsterdam Queen were surprised right after their second concert in our country with two platinum LPs.
The record Jazz sold over a 100.000 copies and A Night At The Opera sold over 200.000. The latter platinum record was fitted with diamonds.
After the European tour, which ends on March 1st in Paris, Queen will go in the studio's to compile a live double-album out of the recorded material which will be released this year". (Hitkrant, 1979)

Originally written in Dutch. Can be seen here: http://www.queencuttings.com/dblog/arti ... rticolo=63.

With 200,000 by 1979 and 27,458 from 1994 to February 2004 (an average of 2,700 a year), it is safe to assume this album has sold close to 300,000, if not more than that already.

Innuendo (released in 1991) and Live Magic (1986) are also proving to be good catalogue sellers.

What it is left to know is a total sale for Greatest Hits II, originally released in October 1991. According to the above google's site, the album reached 300,000 in June 1992 (still Top 10 then):

56 58 GREATEST HITS 2 - queen +3

With +3 denoting 300,000 sales.

However Greatest Hits II eventually reached five times platinum (500,000) in 1997. Plus, in the meantime we know it sold 174,580 from 1994 to February 2004 (averaging 17,400 annually). Hard to know about its sales pattern, but if I had to try and guess, it would be like this:

June 1992 – 300,000
Second half of 1992 and 1993 – 150,000
1994 to 2004 – 174,580

Making it 625,000 by then. After eight years, it may not be far from 700,000.

The most correct thing is to assume something between 650,000 and 700,000.

And I agree with Arab, The Miracle was massive. According to the chart points gathered from the Top 40 (albums and singles combined), Queen were the top act of 1989 and, of course, that album ranked amongst the strongest sellers. It reached platinum for 100,000, but no multi platinum awards were shown on the official Dutch database so it is difficult to know whether it managed to get any further certification. MJDangerous estimated sales of 200,000, and charts stats certainly help believe it.

For the past ten years, I estimated total albums sales of more than 500,000 and a further 500,000 DVDs sold, something that not many old bands can pull out.

Too bad their Hungarian Rhapsody isn't doing too well on the DVD chart.

Edit: I think some of the links don't work. I will try to sort it out.

[loris39]

• [list:bltjnu3e]24/11/1991 - 24/11/2012
  Freddie always in our

[/list:u:bltjnu3e]

[loris39]

This week, Platinum Collection is at number 48 in Spain and, after 51 weeks, it has been certificated Golden Record (20,000 copies) for this new re-mastered version.

[loris39]

Billboard chart:

121 QUEEN GREATEST HITS-WE WILL ROCK YOU 10,472 695 1,317 1,122,304

163 QUEEN GREATEST HITS 8,139 502 1,352 7,049,396

At present, Greatest Hits We Will Rock You has sold 79,000 copies in 2012, while Greatest Hits has sold 131,000 copies in 2012. Combining both, we obtain 210,000 copies, that is to say a very good result.

[slightlymad]

Nice to see Thank God It's Christmas charting on a couple of the iTunes Rock Charts

4 - TGIC Poland
36- TGIC Italy
47- TGIC Ireland

Suprising this song doesn't do better at this time of the year, saying that one of Queen's biggest mistakes was not making a video for this song which didn't help with the songs success.

[arab]

Hungarian Rhapsody DVD is certified platinum here in Poland

[HUR]

On another board, I attempted to estimated Queen's worldwide sales for the past ten years. I went further back to 2002 but, as 2012 is about to finish, it would be more appropriate to claim "the last eleven years" in reality.

Albums, music videos and digital downloads. All estimated.

Worldwide albums:

UK – 5,150,000

Mainland Europe – 6,500,000, including:
Germany – 1,000,000
France – 950,000
Italy – 1,300,000
Spain – 600,000
Netherlands – 500,000
Sweden – 100,000
Switzerland – 150,000
Austria – 100,000
Finland – 75,000
Poland – 1,000,000
Belgium – 200,000
Ireland – 200,000
Norway – 100,000
Denmark – 100,000
Portugal – 50,000

USA – 7,500,000

Canada – 800,000

Japan – 2,500,000
South Korea – 300,000
Rest of Asia – 100,000

Oceania – 500,000

Latin America – 1,500,000 (includes 750,000 in Brazil alone)

South Africa – 100,000

Rest – 50,000

Approximated total – more than 25,000,000

Digital Downloads

USA – 16,000,000
UK – 2,500,000

Estimated worldwide – 25,000,000

Music Videos

UK – 1,200,000

Germany – 650,000
France – 350,000

USA – 1,000,000

Japan – 250,000

Oceania – 400,000

Worldwide – 7,000,000

A summary:

Albums – 25,000,000
Digital downloads – 25,000,000
Music videos – 7,000,000

A total of 57,000,000 records altogether.

I know some people don't like to merge all formats. But the results are impressive on all fronts, whether we take them as a comprehensive total or separately.

Up there with the greatest classic bands and even more than what some current groups have done.

Of course, this all mainly estimated (although the biggest markets, except Germany, are reasonably well covered and rather safe). I mean, there is little doubt that, since 2002, Queen have sold more than 7,000,000 albums and 16,000,000 digital downloads in the USA (I only admit having some problems with the years 2002 and 2003, not so sure what their albums sales would look like), or that, in their homeland, they accumulated albums sales of 5,150,000 and digital downloads of 2,500,000. Knowing that in 2004 alone, they sold 1,781,001 albums in Japan, it is quite possible they sold some 2,500,000 counting the other nine years involved (maybe actually conservative: for the most part, except for the numbers I know for a fact, I'm assuming they sell less than 50,000 back catalogue albums a year). For France we know they sold 607,971 albums in the years between 2003 and 2008 (an average of more than 100,000 pieces a year), so 950,000 would look fine adding 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011 and no 2012. Same for Poland and Brazil (figures coming from the record companies and the codes respectively) and so on.

Here are some countries in detail (mainly USA, UK, Japan and few others, where possible). The further we go, the more difficult it is to get precise sales figures, so a further effort is needed.

USA

Albums sales:

2004 – 942,000
2005 – 986,000
2006 – 993,000
2007 – 757,000
2008 to September 2009 – 884,000
October 2009 to September 2012 – approximately 950,000

Last thing we knew is that Queen reached 20,000,000 albums sales in the Soundscan era during June 2011.

Total from 2004 to 2012 – 5,512,000

With 2002 and 2003, Queen will have sold roughly 7,400,000 in the USA for the past ten years.

Some Music Video sales:

Live At Wembley – 399,000 (to December 2010)
Queen Rock Montreal – 131,000 (December 2010)
Greatest Video Hits – 123,000 (December 2010)
Queen On Fire – 105,000 (December 2010)
Greatest Video Hits II – 28,000 (December 2005)

We Will Rock You sold about 100,000 from 2002 to now. Plus some smaller sellers (Champions Of The World, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Return Of The Champions, A Night At The Opera, Live In Ukraine, Days Of Our Lives) will have added further amounts.

Overall, Queen sold roughly 1,000,000 music videos since 2002, most coming from DVDs.

UK

Album sales:

2002 – 930,000
2003 – 471,000
2004 – 465,000
2005 – 620,000
2006 – 640,000
2007 – 408,357
2008 – 363,830
2009 – 661,480
2010 – 185,000
2011 and 2012 – approximately 375,000

Total 2002 to 2012 – 5,120,000

Annual DVDs sales coming from eight titles: The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Greatest Video Hits, Made In Heaven: The Films, Live At Wembley, Greatest Video Hits II, Queen On Fire, Return Of The Champions and A Night At The Opera.

2003 – 393,511
2004 – 230,435
2005 – 236,745
2006 – 86,588
2007 – 32,747
2008 – 34,052

Total – 1,020,469

Plus further sales, this time to December 2010:

Queen Rock Montreal – 91,150 (including 11,150 on Blu-Ray)
Live In Ukraine – 17,000

Back catalogue sales for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 are missing. As are Live At Wembley 25, Days Of Our Lives and Hungarian Rhapsody.

Total music videos sales in 2002 to 2012 – 1,200,000

Japan

Album sales:

In 2005, Queen were presented with two awards for achieved the best selling foreign album of 2004 and for having been the best selling international act altogether during that same year.

See these links: http://www.riaj.or.jp/e/whatsnew/20050310.html

http://www.riaj.or.jp/issue/record/2005/200504.pdf

Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) held the 19th JAPAN GOLD DISC AWARD ceremony at NHK Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo on 10 March, 2005. ORANGE RANGE and QUEEN were certified as "Artist Of The Year", who were the best-selling artists (each from Domestic and International repertoire) in the Japanese music market in 2004.

Domestic : ORANGE RANGE / Sony Music Records
Album : 2,396,872 units
Single : 2,168,498 units

International : QUEEN / TOSHIBA-EMI
Album : 1,781,001 units

As it can be seen, Queen reached total albums sales of 1,781,001 during 2004 alone.

The question would be how many albums did they sell after 2002, including 1,781,001 for 2004.

In 2002, three of their albums were selling well: Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II and Made In Heaven:

2001/10/24 Made In Heaven # 124 , 6 wks, 8,432
2001/11/21 Greatest Hits # 39 , 24 wks, 41,727
2001/11/21 Greatest Hits II # 192 , 7 wks, 6,850

Greatest Hits (2001) went Gold in early 2004 after shipping more than 100,000 copies, for example.

And, just like Made In Heaven was leading the pack as far as studio albums went, I would expect the others to have been doing well then (some probably selling 20,000 copies in those three years).

In 2005 they had another good year:

Queen Jewels – 91,202
Queen Jewels II – 65,371
Return Of The Champions – 31,907
A Night At The Opera – 6,114

A combined 188,480 copies sold. Of course, that is what those four albums sold while inside the weekly Top 300, actual sales were higher (except for Queen Jewels, which was set inside the ranking virtually the whole year, thus not missing any significant total). But Queen Jewels II, for instance, was certified Gold (100,000 sales) even though its weekly salea added up 65,371 copies (15 weeks on chart).

In 2006 Queen Jewels sold 25,907 during a few weeks (while charting).

In 2008 EMI reissued In Vision (a compilation originally from 2000), that sold 14,793 copies in 7 weeks. The album will have reached total sales of 20,000.

Queen Rock Montreal sold only 3,454 copies in three in November 2007. I imagine it totalled 10,000 when all was said and done.

Absolute Greatest acumulated 30,000 units in total between 2009 and 2010.

Their 2011 reissues amounted 54,990 in 2011, counting their charted weeks. Implying sales of around 100,000 by now when adding what they are selling outside of the Top 300.

Of course, we need to add back catalogue sales for the six years between 2005 and 2010: studio and live albums and also compilations.

Appoximated total between 2002 and 2012 – 2,500,000

Music Videos

Greatest Video Hits [11,648]
Live At Wembley [27,118]
Greatest Video Hits 2 [9,758]
Jewels [33,799]
We Are The Champions: Final Live Japan [4,138]
Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl [9,138]
Return Of The Champions [8,724]
Super Live In Japan [3,919]
Queen Rock Montreal [9,299]

Total – 117,541

As ever with Japan, these sales are just cumulative weekly charts sales of those DVDs, excluding what they sold once they left it, which always comes out as a complication: the whole ranking is only a Top 30 (not Top 300). So here we have substantial missing.

Overall they sold more than – 200,000 music videos

France

Album sales:

Total albums sales between 2003 and 2008 – 607,971

A avergae of 100,000 pieces a year. This includes 264,323 copies for Platinum Collection, 54,422 for Greatest Hits and 41,331 for Greatest Hits II.

Note: Music Club sales are excluded, not something to minimize, considering that 11 Queen albums were available via Club Dial.

After that, Absolute Greatest was certified Gold in December 2010, with shipments of 50,000.

Since 2011, Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits II and Platinum Collection have regurlarly charted in the weekly Top 200, spending 23, 16 and 17 weeks respectively during the last 23 months.

Approximated total from 2002 to 2012 – 950,000

Music Videos

Certifications

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert – 10,000 (in 2002)
Greatest Video Hits – 40,000 (2006)
Live At Wembley – 100,000 (2005)
Greatest Video Hits II – 20,000 (2005)
Queen On Fire – 60,000 (2005)
Return Of The Champions – 10,000 (2005)

Old awards. Live At Wembley went Diamond in April 2005, but sold 21,000 copies between that year and 2006 alone. Meaning that its sales were nearly 140,000 by 2010.

Same for other music videos.

Queen Rock Montreal reached 20,000 sold and there were some other titles not certified.

The reissue of Live At Wembley was very successful, estimated 20,000. And Hungarian Rhapsody recently made it to number 2 (it dropped to 19 this week anyway).

Total – 350,000

Unfortunately, there is no similar amount of details (annual sales for the whole catalogue) for other countries, but there are snippets of information which help one have an idea what they sold in very specific countries or regions:

Poland

Queen sold 1,000,000 since 2002, including 760,000 coming from the albums released by EMI in partner with Agora SA (local media company) between late 2008 and early 2009.

In addition, Platinum Collection sold more than 60,000 under EMI.

Plus, their whole catalogue reached about 50,000 since Universl Music picked up their rights in 2011.

A link with more details: viewtopic.p ... start=2725

Brazil

From the codes gathered, covering 2003 to 2012, Queen shipped nearly 700,000 in Brazil, with 250,000 coming from their compilations Collection and Collection II, and also very good sales for their whole catalogue (including 25,000 for A Night At The Opera and at least 10,000 for just about all their studio albums). For further details, see this: viewtopic.p ... start=2675.

Overall, Queen will have sold 750,000 from 2002 to this date.

Other than that, a more subtle work is needed in order for one to know what they sold in other countries. Some remarkable things:

Italy: Platinum Collection sold 320,000 in 2002 and 100,000 the following year, for a combined 420,000 during both and making it the best selling foreign record of that time period, and not to mention it continued to sell eventually (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011 were its best years). But also, their back catalogue sold well, especially Live At Wembley, Greatest Hits II, Greatest Hits and some studio albums, such as Innuendo and A Night At The Opera. Absolute Greatest sold more 30,000 units in 2009.

Spain: here Platinum Collection had sold nearly 200,000 by December 2004 but it kept selling well since then (in fact, its 2011 reissue went gold, for 20,000 sales). In addition, many albums have recharted every now and then since 2005: A Night At The Opera (6 weeks), A Kind Of Magic (4 weeks), Live Magic (2 weeks), Innuendo (3 weeks), Live At Wembley (18 weeks), Greatest Hits (12 weeks), Greatest Hits II (13 weeks) and Greatest Hits III (4 weeks).

Netherlands: one of their strongest territories ever, which is very well known. As in other countries, Platinum Collection has come out as their biggest title in this last decade after certified double platinum in January 2005, for 160,000 and reaching now an estimated 200,000.

Belgium: their Platinum Collection reached 60,000 in 2004 and has easily gone on to reach 100,000, with impressive charts impact, peaking at number 3 in Wallonia (with 147 weeks in the official chart).

Ireland: similar to UK, just not as great.

Canada: historically sales are about 10% of what they are in USA. In this country, Greatest Hits sold 41,902, 36,647 and 43,508 in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively, a combined 124,057 in just three years (by comparison, in the USA it sold more than 1,000,000 over that time frame). Classic Queen and surprisingly Absolute Greatest also sold well in recent times.

South Korea: quite simply one of their most important markets, comparatively speaking. Greatest Hits was amongst the best selling international albums of 2002, selling 80,911 (cumulative was 553,238 by that year and in 2009 it had gone up to 600,000) and, in later years, Platinum Collection would do (a minimum) of 78,207 to mid 2008. Their move to Universal Music saw good signs of sales, only if interprted correctly -physical sales are very small these days-: Greatest Hits was the second best selling foreign album of 2011 (with 7,148 sold) and Greatest Hits II not that far behind (3,916), plus their whole back catalogue achieved confirmed sales of 18,870. Estimated album total was 25,000 for 2011, which sounds small but was more than enough for them to be the best selling Western act of the year.

Digital downloads

USA

In the USA, Queen were reported to have reached 10,203,000 digital songs sold in September 2009, that means 38 months ago. Very important, because the digital market has experienced a significant growth since then.

In addition, Queen sold 1,725,000 tracks in 2008 alone.

Plus, ten of their songs have gathered sales of 13,500,000 put together. These are, of course, their most popular songs ever: Bohemian Rhapsody (more than 3,000,000), We Will Rock You (more than 2,000,000, on course to reach a similar milestone), We Are The Champions, Under Pressure, Another One Bites The Dust, Fat Bottomed Girls, Somebody To Love, You're My Best Friend, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Killer Queen.

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that Queen sold some 16,000,000 in the USA.

UK

In their home country, the Official Chart Company informed the band had racked up 2,090,000 digital downloads by December 2010.

While, Queen are supposed to have added a further 243,000 between April and October this year, leaving the whole of 2011 and aout half of 2012 missing. In normal case, a total of 3,000,000 should be estimated.

But I will opt for a more conservative (and safe) 2,500,000 total since OCC began tracking these sales

Japan

Certifications

I Was Born To Love You – 500,000 (in 2006)
I Was Born To Love You – 100,000 (2010)
We Will Rock You – 500,000 (2009)

Just two songs and 1,100,000.

I Was Born To Love You was certified for two different digital 'formats'. Those 500,000 sales for I Was Born To Love You were achieved in 2006; it is safe to say that it is now close to 1,000,000 (and we need to add the other 100,000 coming from other digital formats and more).

In total, Queen sold several million in Japan, difficult to know how many

When it comes to other countries, their Itunes positions suggest healthy sales everywhere and, every now and then, their signature songs make chart reappearances in different countries.

[nucleardolphin]

HUR thanks, that was an incredible amount of information to take in. I'm interested to know how many albums some of the other Classic Bands have sold during that same period 2002-2012. Presumably the Beatles have sold more, but what about The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Metallica, The Eagles and especially Pink Floyd or anyone else I may have forgotten. Which Modern acts have sold more during that period. I can think of Coldplay, Eminem, Britney Spears and maybe Robbie Williams.

[HUR]

Thank you, Nucleardolphin.

Via privatre, Benny has kindly suggested me lower their German albums sales to 750,000 (from 1,000,000) after a brief consult. Personally, I would be surprised to learn Queen sold more in France or Italy than in Germany during the last ten years, but Benny knows his stuff very well. In any case, the grand total isn't very affected if I take his advice.

I think that there are quite a lot of modern acts that sold more, mainly with their digital sales. Those four you mentioned, plus Rihanna, Lady GaGa, Adele, Nickelback, Maroon 5, Pink, Back Eyed Peas, and several others.

Not so sure if The Beatles have sold more than Queen when combing albums, digital downloads and music videos. They sure sold more albums, of course.

Other than that, I don't think Led Zeppelin or Eagles sold more. AC/DC and Metallica sold more albums (no doubt), but I don't think they did more overall.

I estimated that Pink Floyd sold about as many albums and music videos as Queen, but Queen would rank ahead if we count digital tracks.

U2 definitely sold more, I would say.

All in my opinion. We would have to ask the fans of all those acts, or someone who worked on their catalogues.

But again, some of the above have been heavily active.

By the way, some of the latest Soundscan sales for Queen:

Hard Music Albums

65 HOL 9 17 46 QUEEN GREATEST HITS-WE WILL ROCK YOU 1,811 -57 4,176 1,128,291

58 HOL 12 26 52 QUEEN GREATEST HITS 1,692 -41 2,865 7,053,953

2 HOL 80 81 QUEEN PLATINUM COLLECTION 1,255 4 1,201 827,709

Music Videos

5 EGRO 11 11 16 QUEEN LIVE IN BUDAPEST 1,119 -2 1,146 6,487

Since September 2009, these three albums have sold as follows in the USA:

Greatest Hits – 360,000
Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You – 256,000
Platinum Collection – 148,000

That is 764,000 copies with their strongest sellers. Then I estimated since then:

Classic Queen – 75,000
Greatest Hits I & II – 50,000
Absolute Greatest – 50,000
Other minor compilations – 15,000

That would mean roughly 954,000 albums sales.

Adding their studio and live albums, Queen may not be far from 1,000,000 since September 2009 (I estimated 950,000 above).

I estimate that in the USA, from 2002 to 2012, Queen sold more than 7,000,000 albums, 1,000,000 music videos and some 16,000,000 digital downloads. Not bad for a market that doesn't rank as one of their best.

[nucleardolphin]

Thanks HUR! One other thing, how many copies has Queen's greatest hits sold in the US? It was originally certified platinum back in 1981 or 1982 I think. Since then it was released through Hollywood records and has done extremely well. Its certified 8 x platinum but would it be more than that taking the original sales into account or is that everything?